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How to Be Everything
How to Be Everything: A Guide for Those Who (Still) Don't Know What They Want to Be When They Grow Up | Emilie Wapnick
20 posts | 14 read | 10 to read
What do you want to be when you grow up? It's a familiar question we're all asked as kids. While seemingly harmless, the question has unintended consequences. It can make you feel like you need to choose one job, one passion, one thing to be about. Guess what? You don't. Having a lot of different interests, projects and curiosities doesn't make you a "jack-of-all-trades, master of none." Your endless curiosity doesn't mean you are broken or flaky. What you are is a multipotentialite: someone with many interests and creative pursuits. And that is actually your biggest strength. How to Be Everything helps you channel your diverse passions and skills to work for you. Based on her popular TED talk, "Why some of us don't have one true calling", Emilie Wapnick flips the script on conventional career advice. Instead of suggesting that you specialize, choose a niche or accumulate 10,000 hours of practice in a single area, Wapnick provides a practical framework for building a sustainable life around ALL of your passions. You'll discover: Why your multipotentiality is your biggest strength, especially in today's uncertain job market. How to make a living and structure your work if you have many skills and interests. How to focus on multiple projects and make progress on all of them. How to handle common insecurities such as the fear of not being the best, the guilt associated with losing interest in something you used to love and the challenge of explaining "what you do" to others. Not fitting neatly into a box can be a beautiful thing. How to Be Everything teaches you how to design a life, at any age and stage of your career, that allows you to be fully you, and find the kind of work you'll love.
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Shae_Purcell

“We overestimate what we can accomplish in a day but underestimate what we can accomplish in a year.'“

Chris Guillebeau

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Shae_Purcell

“Waiting for the inspiration to hit is often just resistance in disguise.“

BookDragonNotWorm I love this quote! So true! 3y
26 likes1 comment
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Shae_Purcell

“Your career should be aligned with your overall goals. Your work should feel like an integrated and supportive force in your life, not the kind-of-awful-thing-you-have-to-do-to-pay-the-bills.“

Wapnick talks about life design vs. career planning. According to interviews she conducted, thriving multipotentialites (“people who display aptitudes across multiple disciplines“) shared three things in their life designs - money, meaning, and variety.

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Shae_Purcell

“The more you allow yourself to explore, draw connections between different ideas, dream up big projects, and collaborate with others, the stronger your superpowers will become.“

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Shae_Purcell

“The truth is that you aren‘t lacking a destiny or purpose. There is a very good reason for your insatiable curiosity: you‘re someone who‘s going to shake things up, create something novel, solve complex, multidimensional problems, make people‘s lives better in your own unique way. Whatever your destinies are, you can‘t step into them while stifling your multipotentiality. You must embrace it and use it.“

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Shae_Purcell

“Multipotentialites tend to struggle with three main areas: work, productivity, and self-esteem.”

WORK - “How the heck will I make a living?“
PROCRASTINATION - “How do you deal with the internal muck (procrastination, self-doubt, overwhelm, and chronic e-mail checking) that can prevent you from moving forward with your goals?“
SELF-ESTEEM - “. . . guilt about the inability to choose or about changing directions.“

Guilt, fear, insecurity. YES.

blurb
Shae_Purcell
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I can't remember how I first heard of Emilie Wapnick, but I know I decided to read her book after listening to her TED talk (link below for those interested). I'm one of those individuals she references on the cover of her book - I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. I'm 36. Well, almost 37. The first chapter - “There Is Nothing Wrong with You.“

https://www.ted.com/talks/emilie_wapnick_why_some_of_us_don_t_have_one_true_call...

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MaleficentBookDragon
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I may have gone a little #KindleDailyDeals crazy today.
@avanders a couple kindle cozies are coming your way too.

umbrellagirl Good choices! 5y
kspenmoll Some great books! 5y
Avanders 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽oooh how fun... brb 🤓 5y
62 likes3 comments
review
alysonimagines
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Pickpick

Do you have a plethora of interests that don‘t fit neatly into one job or hobby? Still not sure what you want to be when you grow up because choosing one thing feels like the kiss of death? You may be a multipotentialite! And you don‘t have to choose just one thing. Emilie Wapnick is a fantastic guide who walks the reader through many possible paths to building a life of meaning and variety that also pays the bills. Read this and set yo‘self free!

wanderinglynn I‘m a multipotentialite. 🙋🏼‍♀️ I saw a Ted talk on it & realized that was me. 6y
alysonimagines @wanderinglynn 🙌 Woo-hoo! Multipotentialites unite! 🙌 I first heard Emilie Wapnick in a podcast interview a few years ago and watched her TED talk not long after that. She has also built a wonderful blog at https://puttylike.com and a fabulous community called the Puttytribe that I just joined this year and am really enjoying. (edited) 6y
wanderinglynn 🙌🏻 I‘ll have to check it out. Thanks for sharing! 6y
11 likes2 stack adds3 comments
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bookitaabuku
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The 5 Multipotentialite powers are:

1. Idea synthesis
2. Rapid learning
3. Adaptability
4. Big-picture thinking
5. Relating & translating

🙋🏻

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bookitaabuku

A specialist might go straight down any one of these trajectories to the associated career, but multipotentialites are different. We move both vertically and laterally. We apply skills beyond service of their associated career, to other disciplines, and in unusual ways.

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bookitaabuku

Multipotentialites are often described as "bridge builders" or "hubs of the wheel," because of how easily we communicate with and lead multidisciplinary teams.

RaimeyGallant Interesting. And welcome to Litsy! #LitsyWelcomeWagon Some of us put together Litsy tips to help new Littens navigate the site. It's the link in my bio on my page in case you're interested. :) 7y
2 likes1 comment
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bookitaabuku

The right time to set the stage for a transition is when you are feeling bored. Don't wait until you are so unhappy that even thinking about work makes you feel ill.

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CatchMyBookBreath
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#riotgram day 2 - yellow books. I am reorganizing my books and didn't realize I had more than 2 yellow books!

37 likes1 stack add
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Kelly
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The nonfiction I'll be inhaling today between gulps of the third Harry Potter book and my own writing.

27 likes1 stack add
review
unabridgedchick
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Pickpick

I was apprehensive about this book when I started, fearing it'd be a long form essay on #YOLO (you only live once) or a passionate defense of the gig economy. Instead, I found this a fascinating, empathetic, empowering read that acknowledges today's economic realities, the personal temperament of many people I know, and the ways current US culture is oriented toward a rigid, specialist career path (and how that need not be the way everyone works).

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unabridgedchick
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Just started this one. Hopefully it's not all #yolo etc. as I have no time for that nonsense.

9 likes1 stack add
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CatchMyBookBreath
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It's here!! I'm starting tonite! Where are my fellow #multipotentialites?

21 likes1 stack add